http://www.continuum-concept.org/reading/finding-your-tribe.html
Kirsten and Leticia and I met just over 2 years ago in 2011 when Miles was about 8 months old and Caden was about 3 and a half. They both had a baby each about 15 months old and had been attending some of my LLL meetings. We discovered that we had raw fooding (amongst many other things) in common and decided to meet weekly. We established our tribe.
We had a brief break where Leticia and J'nel trialled an idea called the MKNLC (Milton Keynes Natural Learning Community). Though a great idea, there wasn't a market for it at the time and it fell through. This meant we had the opportunity to establish our weekly meetings back up again. We decided to have a closed group, inspired by other people I know who have done something similar for a few years, always good to model yourself on a platform that has worked successfully before. So we have 4 families that meet each Wednesday morning until just after lunch. Currently we have circle time first, where the kids sit in a circle (obviously) and talk about how they feel that day (the word Poo usually makes it into the dialogue at least once, followed by peels of delighted laughter from the kids). They do love it, they now ask for circle time as soon as they arrive so they are clearly looking forward to it. Then they have a private yoga class. We do a workshop after that, very easy sorts of things that don't involve too much organising, mess or stress. They are still so young that playing is the main way they learn anyway. They have a lot of free play time. We bring fruit each and have a huge communal fruit bowl snack. We all bring packed lunches and as the kids know each other really well, it's like a family that we visit weekly and they really can practise their social skills on one another. There are 7 children in total. We have story time and clear up at the end.
Here is a picture of them doing their workshop last week. They did dragon magnets. It was the black coating that you scratch off with a wooden stick to reveal a rainbow pattern underneath.
(Had to wait until Miles strategically moved his orange before I could take this picture). If its warm they always end up being Nackedei!
It's great to have our tribe and the kids get a lot out of building relationships with the same children week after week. We hope that apart from our great friendships, we can help our children to enjoy deep and lasting friendships through this group (and in other regular meet ups) that will last their lifetimes. They will always have this connection and if we can build on it and they enjoy it, it is a worthwhile pursuit.
In our modern world where families are disparate and estranged; people live in separate units and don't know their neighbours; we need this level of connection with other human beings for good mental health and happiness. Find your tribe :)
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